The 62-year-old former
forest watcher's journey of atonement started on June 3, 2015, when he
told a group of officials how he was part of the gang that killed over
20 elephants in two years.

Jeemon JacobIndia Today, October 13, 2016

Elephant poachingAround 14 people from Kuttampuzha have been arrested since August 2015 in some 18 elephant poaching cases.

The
worst is over, feels Kunjumon Devasey. Out on bail on August 25, after
a year in judicial custody and jail, the whistleblower in what was
Kerala's, perhaps India's, biggest elephant poaching case, is trying to
lead a quiet life in his remote village, Kalarikudi, bordering the
Idamalayar forests in Ernakulam district. He's still an accused in 16
poaching cases, his wife is mentally not all there, but the man has no
regrets about exposing the poaching syndicate. "I've no future but my
conscience was killing me. It had to be done," he says.

The
62-year-old former forest watcher's journey of atonement started on
June 3, 2015, when he walked into the Karimbani range office (under
Ernakulam district's Malayatoor forest division) and told a group of
stunned officials how he had, on various occasions, accompanied a group
of poachers, headed by 'Ikkara' Vasu, and killed over 20 elephants in
Vazhachal, Thundathil, Munnar and Parambikulam wildlife sanctuaries in
a span of two years.

Deputy range officer K.P. Sunil Kumar
thought the man had gone crazy in his old age and even advised him to
"go and see a psychiatrist". But Kunjumon stuck to his guns, and the
names and mobile numbers he came up with were of known offenders in the
area (though most were thought to be 'inactive').